Doubt (2008)

Doubt is a 2008 film adaptation of the John Patrick Shanley stage play Doubt: A Parable. Written and directed by Shanley and produced by Scott Rudin, the film stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. It premiered on October 30, 2008 at the AFI Fest before being distributed by Miramax Films in limited release on December 12, 2008 and in wide release on December 25, 2008.

Plot

Set in 1964 at a Catholic church in the Bronx, New York, the film opens with Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) giving a sermon on the nature of doubt, noting that, like faith, it can be a unifying force. That evening, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), the strict Principal of the attached school, discusses the sermon with her fellow nuns, the Sisters of Charity of New York. She asks if anyone has observed unusual behavior to give Father Flynn cause for preaching about doubt, and instructs them to keep their eyes open for any such behavior.

Sister James (Amy Adams), a young and naïve teacher, observes the closeness between Father Flynn and Donald Miller, the school’s only black student and an altar boy. One day during class, Sister James receives a call in her class asking for Donald Miller to meet Father Flynn in the rectory. When he returns, Donald is distraught and Sister James notices the smell of alcohol on his breath. Later, while her students are learning a dance, she sees Father Flynn placing a white shirt in Donald’s locker. On guard for unusual behavior, Sister James reveals her suspicions to Sister Aloysius.

Under the pretext of discussing problems with the school’s Christmas play, Sisters Aloysius and James confront Father Flynn with their suspicions that his relationship with Donald may be inappropriate. Several times, Father Flynn asks them to leave the matter alone as a private issue between the boy and himself but Sister Aloysius persists. The priest relents, revealing that Donald had been caught drinking altar wine. He explains that he had promised the student not to tell anyone about the incident, and that he could remain an altar boy. Having now been forced to break that promise and reveal the truth, he will need to dismiss Donald as an altar boy. Father Flynn advises the nuns that he is disappointed in the way they handled this.

Initially, Sister James is relieved and convinced of Father Flynn’s innocence, but Sister Aloysius’ belief that he has behaved inappropriately with the boy is unshakeable. Sister James later confronts Father Flynn about the shirt she saw him leaving in Donald’s locker, having not revealed this detail to Sister Aloysius. They discuss his relationship with the boy and Sister James’ doubts are assuaged.

Sister Aloysius sends for Donald Miller’s mother to reveal her suspicions. Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis) surprises Sister Aloysius by stating that she should not pursue the matter further and that he only has to last until the end of the school year before he goes on to attend high school. Mrs. Miller believes her son to be gay. To protect him from an abusive, homophobic father, she asks that the matter be dropped.

Despite having no evidence and no support from Donald’s mother, Sister Aloysius demands that Father Flynn tell the truth or she will go to his superiors. Father Flynn repeats that there is no illicit relationship, but Sister Aloysius says she knows that he has a history of problems, having moved to three different parishes in five years. She tells him that she has contacted a nun at one of his prior churches (she refuses to say whom) and that this nun corroborated her suspicions. Father Flynn is furious that she has contacted a nun rather than the church’s priest. Sister Aloysius demands that he resign. Unable to stand up to her willingness to destroy his character, he relents.

Following his final sermon, the nuns sit together in the church garden. Sister Aloysius tells Sister James that although Father Flynn has left, he has been given a more prestigious parish with its parochial school, in effect a promotion. She goes on to reveal that she lied about speaking to a nun at Father Flynn’s former church. Repeating a line from earlier in the film that “In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God,” she adds that there is also a price. Aloysius breaks down in tears and says to Sister James, “I have such doubts.”

Production

Production began on December 1, 2007. The film, which centers on a Bronx Catholic school, was filmed in various areas of the Bronx, including the College of Mount Saint Vincent and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The “garden” exterior scenes were shot at the historic Episcopal Church St. Luke in the Fields on Hudson Street in New York’s Greenwich Village. The associated St. Luke’s School was also heavily featured.

Reception

Based on 190 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 77% approval rating. The site reported in a consensus that “Doubt succeeds on the strength of its top-notch cast, who successfully guide the film through the occasional narrative lull.” Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a 70/100 approval rating based on 34 reviews. Critic Manohla Dargis of the New York Times concluded that “the air is thick with paranoia in ‘Doubt,’ but nowhere as thick, juicy, sustained or sustaining as Meryl Streep’s performance.”

Viola Davis’ performance drew her critcal raves. Salon magazine declared that Davis’ charcter Mrs. Miller was acted with “a near-miraculous level of believability…Davis, in her small, one-scene role, is incredibly moving – I can barely remember a Davis performance where I haven’t been moved…[she] plays her charcter, an anxious, hardworking woman who’s just trying to hold her life and family together, by holding everything close. She’s not a fountain of emotion, dispensing broad expression or movement; instead, she keeps it all inside and lets us in.”

NPR called Davis’ acting in the movie “the film’s most wrenching performance…the other [actors] argue strenuously and occasionally even eloquently, to ever-diminishing effect; Davis speaks plainly and quietly, and leaves [no] doubt that the moral high ground is a treacherous place to occupy in the real world.”

Cast & Credits

• Directed by: John Patrick Shanley
• Produced by: Scott Rudin
• Written by: John Patrick Shanley
• Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Joseph Foster, Alice Drummond
• Music by: Howard Shore
• Cinematography: Roger Deakins
• Editing by: Dylan Tichenor

Other Information

• Distributed by: Miramax Films
• Release dates: October 30, 2008 (AFI Fest); December 12, 2008 (limited); December 25, 2008 (wide)
• Running time: 104 min.
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Budget: US$20 million
• Gross revenue: US$37,309,677

Links

• Official site
• Times online, “John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: in the church of poisoned minds”
• Doubt at the Internet Movie Database
• Doubt at Rotten Tomatoes
• “Trailers”. written at Apple. Miramax. http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/doubt/.
• Doubt: A film review

Tags: Doubt, meryl streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Trailer, Viola Davis